New customer comes in, Drops a name, and asks you to float them$500.00 for 2 weeks.
 

What do you do ? As a rule, I usually never float more than I am willing to loose, and that amount is pretty small. Id rather not work at all, than loose money on a job .
Fwiw , his family is golden, and I know all the guys he runs with, they are all stand up guys .
Being in business, throws all sorts of whacky ness at you over the years, that's for sure.
Sometimes I will take a post dated check for something like this if I get the warm and fuzzy first.

If all of the above is true, why do you need to float his $500?

Exactly .

Check with the name he dropped. Happens alot in my business, people have 'dropped my name' and I don't even know them......

Edit, I wouldn't even bother. Asking you to float $500 is telling you his money is worth more than your time.......

I like to refer to advice from Harold Hecuba and Bill Shakespeare:


Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
Do not forget: stay out of debt.
Think twice, and take this good advice from me:
Guard that old solvency!
There's just one other thing you ought to do.
To thine own self be true.


If he's good for it he can put it on a credit card. if he's not, tell him to walk.

I hate it when people try to guilt me into crap. Years ago, I used to give in...and not get paid back every time.

Why isn't this guy asking his stand-up family for the loan? Probably because they won't loan him money anymore. So he's trading on the only thing he has (his family's reputation) to try to swindle someone else.

Why two weeks? Because he'll pick up his car in a day or two, and hope you "forget". Or he'll be somewhere else by then. Or some "emergency" comes up that means he can't repay indefinitely.

I can't see any scenario under which you actually get paid back.

Hmm, probably not.

In my experience people who do that up front often like to find something to ***** about when it's time to pay and look for discounts.

FWIW, I find people with money do that more often than those without.

Yeah, the most memorable time this happened to me the guy said "Greg (the Chairman of the Board) said I should talk to you."

I put him on hold, called down to Greg's office and asked his assistant who the guy was. She said "no idea, cold call but it's relevant to your Dept so I gave him your name"

Hung up both calls.

He calls back, "I think we got disconnected"

Said no we did not, I hung up.

"Why did you do that?"

Don't like being lied to, terrible way to start a business relationship, then hung up again.

Just remember, people suck more than anybody!

All sorts of reasons can cause that situation. He may just want to wait for his Christmas bonus to pay you from, and may be oblivious what it is like to run a business. But probably not.

If your relationship with his family/friends is worth giving him a $500 Christmas present, do it. If he pays you back, great, and if not you're already fine with it. If your relationship with his family/friends isn't worth giving away $500, and you're paid up on your Christmas Charity Ledger, then he can talk to you in two weeks.

10 internet points for the Gilligan's Island reference.

Nope.

HA, HA good one, ahhh NO.

That's why they make credit cards.

Guy walks into my office tells my receptionist he works for the salon across the street and do I have a moment for him. My wife and kids have been customers there for years and i'm thinking blue collar tax problem and he can't afford much to get it fixed. sure, c'mon in.

he walks into my office with arm extended holding a business card for some internet marketing bull****. he got half a sentence out and I said 'you don't work for Jon' he says 'I work with them'. no thanks I says, not interested. I was pissed. he won't leave. insists he can help me and starts critiquing my website. I said as clearly as possible 'please don't waste your time or mine, i'm not going to buy anything from you'. he says 'at least let me leave you my card'. 'no thanks, I don't appreciate being lied to about who you are'. he finally walks out pissed and by end of the day I see he's left some horrible message as a google review posing as a customer of mine.

the minute he walked into my office, and I mean the very second I saw his face, I hated him. just knew he needed an ass beating. seems my gut was right. total ****bag.

Can you believe that episode (The producer) was first aired just over 50 years ago? ( October 3, 1966)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481045768.jpg

I would tell him that I'd have to charge him an extra $20 and keep his car until he pays. I'd not let the car out of the garage until he pays.

Not just no, Hell no. He is scamming you. There once was a guy who passed himself off as Clark Rockefeller and got away with it for years by doing basically what this guy is doing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Gerhartsreiter All he did was get in with some people in the right circles, drop their names to others in the same circle, eventually enough people had heard of him that he was elected president of some prestigious club downtown.

Dropping names and asking for credit = con.

Maybe he'll agree to leave his gold ROLEX watch for the 2 weeks as collateral ;)


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481052994.jpg

Tell him the repair can wait two weeks. Then he can pay you cash when it's done.

Sounds like a bad precedent to start off on.

+1000
Asking for credit is only step one on the road to screwing you.

A guy I know asked if he could borrow $100 until payday.

i asked him when's payday?

He said, how the hell would I know? You're the one with the job ...

If I had done business with him before....MAYBE.....newb, NFW.

Cash, ass or grass. No freebies....

What does "drops a name" mean in this context?

Why don't you check his references and explain the situation?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481064219.jpg

Anyone remember the movie bachelor party? Work on the guys car on credit, but do this to it:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481064391.jpg




http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481064460.jpg

read other posts, I get it now. no way!

That's the weirdest thing I've heard in a while.

Took a cruise from Hawaii (in 2006) and the Cruise Line to be able to operate without having a US crew (which are too expensive) has to landed somewhere outside US territory. So after two days at sea, I was sitting in the lagoon that was on TV all the time. Did came across Ginger or Mary Ann...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1481070537.jpg

Jones Act, if you're wondering why.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920

To the OP: I'm a pretty big sucker, and even I wouldn't fall for this garbage.

Is this a serious question?

Ask him if he can shop at the grocery store and have them hold a check for two weeks.

If he was a long term personal friend you would not have to post a question, just do it. If is a first time customer and a total unknown, no way in heck.

We do business with all sorts of clients. If they are old customers we just write an invoice and let them mail a check. New customers are credit card or COD only unless we have a PO or a contract.

Fred, as most have stated here - you own & manage an automotive repair business. Short term / high interest loans are the other guys down the street. IE: Pawn shops and vehicle title loan companies.

Don't set yourself up for failure before even beginning the job. $500 these days is relatively small amount. If he doesn't have access to that by cash or credit card to pay you now..............he won't have it in 2 weeks either.

Give him a form for a personal loan at "X" prevailing interest rates with loan processing fee.
Collateral worth stated.
"X" punitive consequences would result, with legal fees, for non-payment.
All information signed and verified of course.


He's well connected to wealthy people.
Yet he asks a complete stranger for a small favor...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

Sorry no. You're not in the banking business you're in the car repair business

The chump doesn't have a credit card?